Let Me Eat Cake– Chocolate, Please

Who doesn't like chocolate cake, especially this cake. This recipe has been on the blog for a while now, but it was on the "Other Stuff" page. I had intended to put more topics of interest there, but instead I'm reorganizing, and the "Other Stuff" page will soon become "Classroom Design." I post this chocolate cake recipe so it is not lost.

This is a favorite summer recipe. It can be made any time of year, but for me and my life, summer is the only time I have for random baking. And summer is less stressful than the school year so I can live a bit more healthfully and enjoy a piece of not-too-decadent cake. Like all posts on the blog, this is not written as just a straightforward recipe. Gotta throw in a little fun commentary. Life is lived in the small details after all, right?

Died-and-Went-to-Heaven Chocolate Cake

Yum, yum, yummy chocolate cake

This is a great, easy, low-guilt cake. Great because it is super moist thanks to buttermilk. Easy because it is made in a bundt pan and only needs a glaze to pour over top– not frosting to spread. And Low-Guilt because it only has 220 calories and 5 grams of fat, per slice, which is 1/16 of the cake. Here we go!

Ingredients for cake:
1 3/4 C flour
1 C sugar
3/4 C cocoa powder (Dutch Process)
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/4 C buttermilk
1 C packed brown sugar
2 lg eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 C canola oil
2 t vanilla
1 C strong black coffee

Ingredients for icing:
1 C confectioners sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1 to 2 Tbs buttermilk, as needed so it pours and dribbles

Preheat the oven to 350°

Spray bundt pan with Pam and then flour. I don't have all silicon baking dishes by any means, but with this silicone bundt pan it is super easy to get cakes out.

I was married 25 years before I got my Kitchen-Aid Mixer. I only got it as a poor substitute for a spring break vacation, so it was not without it's sacrifice. But I do love it.

Note the Twin Terrors that live in the bowl... why? you ask... I have no idea. My husband got them for me for Valentine's day and threw them in there, and they just sort of took up residence. I think they are mostly there because the bowl was empty and any empty space in our house forms a vacuum which instantly fills itself. The Twin Terrors are not in ANYway reference to my younger identical twin brothers... nope... not at all... never crossed my mind.

BTW, if you have anyone living in your mixer, take them out before the next steps. grin.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and baking powder.

Stir together the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla. Then add to dry ingredients and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. This is where I REALLY appreciate the ol' Kitchen-Aid. After 2 minutes whisk in hot coffee until completely incorporated. This will for a very thin batter– not to worry!

Pour the batter into the prepped pan. Note I keep my silicone bundt pan on a small cooling rack as it makes the soft pan easier to handle and keep its shape. I lift the cake and rack and leave both in the oven to bake.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, or until the tester comes out clean.

Cool cake on rack for ten minutes and then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely.

Whisk the icing ingredients until pourable. Pour over the cake on the plate. I make this cake for my health conscious friends, and my not-so-health conscious friends, too... they get ice cream on top! :)

I would happily give credit to whoever I got this recipe from, but I have had it for a long while now and have no idea of the source. Whoever made it up– Thank you! I really think it is the buttermilk and coffee that give this cake its moist, rich flavor. I never buy buttermilk any other time, and can't really imagine that I'd like it straight up, but in this recipe– yummmm. And coffee? Well, everything in life is better with a little bit of coffee. It's kinda funny though, this cake does not taste like a mocha cake. It is just good, straight-up chocolate.

Enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping by for this non-typical, non-teacher post. I hope you'll swing by again... though you are not likely to find another cake recipe, there is a great oatmeal bake recipe hiding somewhere in these pages if you search. Next up on Monday, will be a new video I made. It's just a short one for the kiddos. Good for viewing to learn about fledgling birds and text-to-self connections, and Mo Willems There's a Bird on Your Head.  You just never know what the next post will hold.

See you next time.

This post first appeared on the Other Stuff page as Died-And-Went-To-Heaven Chocolate Cake on kidpeopleclassroom.com

More Than Five Funny, Useful Things

You know me. No posts in over five weeks, then three posts in five days... and you're in for a treat today, because in addition to being Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday it is also Funny Kid Friday. I've been chuckling for a week every time I think of this story.

As I write this, we are having an ice day. The sleet is pouring down at just barely 32 degrees, making for one heck of a dangerous mess outside. The dog wouldn't even go down the porch steps until I scraped them! The ONLY good thing that can happen on an ice day is for school to be cancelled... and it was! Now you know why I am posting three times in five days. I even had time for a nice breakfast... well, actually the same breakfast I would have had if I were on my way to school.



I suppose that photo is not especially appetizing... a food blogger I'll never be... I think they take photos of their food before they eat it. snort. It should tell you something, that we are down to the last bit in just a couple days. This new recipe from a friend shot to the top of our favorites list. It is an oatmeal bake. It takes about ten minutes to put together, and 25ish minutes to bake. I put in bananas, dried blueberries, and walnuts, basically because that is what we had. I think I'll try it with raisins, or even canned peaches next time, but it will work with most any fruit. The fruit gets lovely and smushy in the warm oatmeal.

Click on the picture to download the recipe. I added vanilla to the recipe and dropped the brown sugar from half a cup to a third. Hope you like it as much as we do!
Here we go then with Five for Friday... the recipe was a yummy bonus  


1.  Check out the bumper sticker I saw in a parking lot. It made me chuckle, though some days I want to scream this to the world...



like "used to" counts. ha.

2.  Everybody young and old knows THIS book

But not everybody knows that Amazon made an animated VIDEO of the book. A WONDERFUL video!  It stays pretty true to Ezra Jack Keats style and storyline, but fills in the details with some wonderful snowy city scenes and new diverse characters. Here are some of them, both new...

And old. That little snowman is so Snowy Dayish, isn't it?

The story involves Peter and his neighborhood getting ready for the holidays, but even so, I'm going to show it to my kiddos now in January. It's just delightful and worth checking out. I am so glad I found it. You can see a preview of The Snowy Day and Amazon's other holiday special, If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie, by clicking on the gif below... isn't he just as you pictured Peter to be?




3.  Speaking of snowy days, there are sooooo many snow and ice activities to do with kids. Even if you live in Florida, there are plenty. I collect them all on my Pinterest Board dedicated to all things SNOW. Find the latest crafts, science activities, books and videos by clicking below.

Here's one of the ideas I mentioned a couple weeks ago, but with pics. You take old plastic containers, fill them with water, drop in stuff, freeze, then let the kids get the stuff out. It would be really cute to drop a handful of penguins in there. Unfortunately, I readied this activity while at home over break and there were no penguins in sight.. plastic, or otherwise. There were lots of miscellaneous do-dads however. I stash most of these things in my pockets as I find them out of place in the classroom, intending to put them away, but they often make their way home until laundry day, and beyond. If I want a random do-dad, I look on the top of the dryer.

Here are the found items in water placed out on our deck to freeze.



We did a lesson on states of matter with water. If water becomes ice at 32 degrees, then a glass of water must be warmer than 32 degrees. And when warm water drips on cold ice, what happens? Well, the ice melts and releases the item... at least releases it enough for you to pry it out with your little kid fingers.

Here is the iceberg activity after the littles were at if for a while with the eyedroppers. They got a lot of things out.

4.  I posted about these two ideas earlier this week. I thought they were so worthwhile I gave them each their own post. If you don't know about pokey pin pages, or you stay away from them because you don't want to give the kids push pins, have I got the tool for you! Click to read about the pokey pens, some sources for pokey pin sheets, and some new paper you might not know about.

And this one is a FREEBIE. Kids love to cut snowflakes, but the little guys just can't... or can they? Check out this free downloadable template that my DH made for me and let your kinders cut to their heart's delight. Click to see post.

5.        

A former student stopped by my room the other morning just as the bell rang. His cousin is in my class this year. 

Student:  Hi, Mrs. Wright. Could you give this hat to Grant? He left it at my house.

Me:  Sure thing. I'll give it to him now.

As student turns to walk away...

Me: Hey, bud, you sure are getting tall!

Student: Thanks, Mrs. Wright, so are you!

If only I were growing in the vertical direction...

There you have it. Now see what everybody else is up to this Five for Friday on Doodle Bugs Teaching. Thanks, Kacey, for the linky.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time!

Randomness, Recipes, and Real Bloggers

Truly Random. That is what you could call today's post. Might bring a chuckle or two, though. Thanks, Kasey, at Doodle Bugs Teaching for the ever popular Five for Friday link-up.

1.  First of all, does anybody else find this "new" typewriter ironic??

It is a regular, old-fashioned, gotta hit each key like you mean it, non-electric typewriter. The blurb says it will help you do "retro style" invites, and lend a "vintage air" to your office. Crack. Me. Up. When I saw the ad and saw they were two hundred dollars– good grief– I laughed and laughed. What goes around, comes around... although I don't remember any of the originals available in pink!

2.  And in the same vein, do you remember these?

Yep, that's a ViewMaster. It is still for sale, or maybe I should say, back for sale, and apparently all the rage. It costs TWENTY bucks and only comes with three disks. I have FIVE original equipment ViewMasters in a special collector box in my classroom with about 50 disks. Maybe I should put them on ebay and make back some of the money this classroom move has cost me, eh? No, the kiddos do love them and get them out for free choice. But twenty bucks?? They used to be five. Who woulda' thunk. I can recommend them though- if these new ones are just like the old ones they are very hardy. Mine have seen a lot of kid use, and most of mine came from garage sales so had already had a round of kid play.

3.  Did you see the super cute and good-for-kids Fine Motor Take Home Kit that Marsha McGuire posted on Differentiated Kindergarten? The FREE kit, I should add?

 

I think it is a terrific idea to send the kits home with kiddos for fine motor practice. Here packet comes with a lot of ideas, some activity cards, a parent brochure and a neat tag. I have gathered all the items for the activities and will be introducing the kits to parents on Curriculum Night. I like to build connections between home and school and I think this will help– kinders love taking things home from school. It also gives parents a chance to see what their child can do. I'm going to send two kits home with two kids each Friday, and make them due back on Monday, unless the kidperson is really into it. In that case they can keep them at home until Wednesday– just need them back in time to send home with the next lucky kids. You have to gather the stuff to go into the kit but the printables are a freebie and you can get them by clicking on the picture above and going to the Differentiated Kindergarten post. Thanks, Marsha!

I think my kits are going to travel between home and school in these adorable monster bags. Target's Dollar Spot had the CUTEST monster themed stuff this year– drawstring bags, pencil cases, notebooks... I got myself a new lunch bag. LOVE.

4.  I had a package of chicken in the fridge the other day, but when I remembered it there was only an hour or so before dinner. Who likes plain boneless, skinless chicken breasts? Boring. So I rummaged around in the fridge, then poured a little soy sauce, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar into a flat bottomed bowl, adding to that some crushed garlic and pepper. Sorry I don't have exact measurements. I've been cooking long enough to just sort of wing it when it comes to amounts. I usually only measure when I'm trying new recipes... with marinades... naw.

Ingredients I had on hand.

I stirred, then added the chicken breasts to it, sliced quite thin and punctured many times with a fork.

Chicken in marinade before going into the pan.

I covered and placed it in the fridge, turning them over after half an hour. I then put them in my new ceramic saute pan (LOVE!) and cooked them on top of the stove until they were no longer pink, which didn't take long as they were thin slices. I served them over rice and some chopped veges. Oh. my. gosh. SO good. SO simple. SO fast. I highly recommend! Sorry I don't have any pictures past the marinade stage– I was busy cooking and eating. Didn't think about pictures again until the kitchen was cleaned up. Rachel Ray has nothing to worry about as I just can't cook in front of a camera :)

5.  Teachers are terrific! I FINALLY got to meet some fellow Michigan bloggers. FUN!! We had a blast! One of the real perks of blogging is the people you get to "meet." I had a grand time chatting, learned some new tips, got some neat swag, and won a great prize, too... It is a Ellison Super Star machine that does die cutting. Here is a picture I pulled from the internet because I haven't opened the box yet.

I also won two set of dies that cut out a little boy and a little girl with various clothing options. I'm sure I and my colleagues (because it just seems like a thing for sharing) will put it to good use in the coming year, and I'll post about what I do with it. I will also post more about this meet up in the coming weeks as we'll have some follow-up photos and info to share. I want to especially encourage any Michigan teacher bloggers or TPTers to come to next year's meet-up. Sending off words and ideas into the black hole of the internet can be a little lonely. It is always good to put faces and personalities with the people behind the blog or TPT store. 

Hope you enjoyed my randomness today. Click on back to other Five for Friday posts. Thanks Kacey!

Now I'm off to get ready for a family wedding. Have a great weekend, especially those of you who were back at school with kids this week... my first week is fast approaching! See you next time.

Five for Happy Friday

Today finds me contemplating happiness, both in the classroom and at home.  Thanks, Kacey, for Five for Friday so I can link up to share.

1.  Did you catch the New York Times article about some new testing? The latest thing that "the powers that be" want tested in the classroom are social skills, including grit and joy.... can you hear me moan, wail, and gnash my teeth right through your computer screen, because that is what this news makes me do! And I'm not the only one. The person who coined the term "grit" in current educational settings, and wrote the book of the same name, Angela Duckworth, was on the board overseeing the project and she RESIGNED over the testing issue! She said, "I do not think we should be doing this; it is a bad idea."  One more way to put pressure on kids and blame them, and teachers, if they are found not to have "social awareness" and "growth mindset.." whatever that means... and however they think they are going to test for it!

Okay, so you're thinking, this post was supposed to be "happy" and that first paragraph was anything but! To counterbalance the horrible testing news, I'll share another article, also from the NYT. In this one, Emma Seppala, author of The Happiness Track, talks about the importance of happiness in life, and how to help kids be happy. The article suggests concrete ways to help kids in the classroom. (What a world we live in that so much press is spent on stressed out elementary students.) I've been contemplating the list for the last several days, and on some ideas make notes:

Live in the moment  Help kids focus on what's at hand and not the ever present to-do list.

Model Resilience   Help kids overcome challenges and find respite from pressures.

Manage your energy  Are we as teachers sometimes so full of happy, frenetic energy that we forget to recognize and strive for joy in calm moments, too? In looking at my own classroom I can find calmer happy moments with some read alouds, or in choosing and sharing my own small moment stories in writing workshop. A fellow teacher builds yoga into her classroom routine which she says brings calm happiness.

Do nothing  Kids cannot always be on task (and yet that is our expectation... hmmm.) So build in time for kids to be "off task" and following their own thoughts and impulses. Recess? Free choice? I happened on yet another great article on this topic here.

Be kind to yourself   Kids think of mistakes as good things when we teach and model that. When my kiddos make public mistakes, I sometimes say, "Yippie and wow, what a good way to learn. Thanks for helping us learn with you." A positive spin helps kids realize we all make mistakes and we can all learn from them.

Be kind to others   Thankfully, kids are naturally kind... though on bad days we can forget that. We need to value and protect their trait of compassion.

Here are links to both articles so you can read them yourself... pin now, read later.

Testing for Joy and Grit?... 

Letting Happiness Flourish in the Classroom 

Now I share some things that make me happy, and maybe you, too...
2.  Happy with our house– Last week I posted on the new built-in bookshelves in our entry hall. We needed more book storage and an easy place to throw our coats when we came in the door. Well, the hooks came in and we put them up. Some before, during, and after pics are  here.

I wasn't sure if bookshelves lent themselves to coat storage, but it really works. These are bulky coats, so as warmer weather comes the bulk will diminish and be gone. (Don't mind the little fur ball in the corner– she's always up for a photo op.) It is very nice to have the "coat chair" in the family room back to just a comfy seating option... well, that will be the case when I break the habit of walking right past the new hooks to throw my coat on the chair... ugh.

3.  Happy with some good food– This winter I fell in love with Overnight Crockpot Pumpkin Oatmeal and even with the weather warming I still enjoy it. I've tried peach, applesauce, and several other varieties, but pumpkin is the winner, especially with that good-for-you-orange-vegetable bonus. If you google you'll find lots of versions, several of which I've tried. Tweaking it here and there for personal taste, this is the recipe we've finally landed on.

The oatmeal really is under all that stuff– snort.

Several things to note that I've changed from the typical recipe–
• I use half the amount of pumpkin pie spice that many recipes call for and then add in that much more cinnamon. We love cinnamon more than cloves and nutmeg.
• The vanilla is a must– if I forget to put it in the night before I add it in the morning and it's okay.
• I don't put any brown sugar into the pot, but let each family member sweeten it to their own taste when served. I found if I added it in, some members still added their "usual amount" and it became too much sugar to be healthy. This way I think they use a little less.
• We always add walnuts, raisins and more cinnamon– nice additions to the pumpkin flavor.
• Some recipes call for water, some milk. I do half and half. We still add more at eating time for consistency's sake, and to cool it off.
• I only use the "Keep warm" setting when cooking overnight. I use a big crockpot that has three settings- keep warm, low, and high, and I found if I used the recommended "low" setting it was cooked too much, leaving the oatmeal too thick and the crockpot a heck of a mess to clean with oatmeal cemented to the sides.

Overnight Crockpot Pumpkin Oatmeal

Before going to bed put the following in the crockpot:

2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cup steel cut Irish oatmeal
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 can pumpkin puree

Turn the crockpot to "Keep warm" and go to bed. Wake in the morning to the aroma of pumpkin pie :)

4.  Happy with new classroom activities– Lookee, lookee what I found! Monkeys and bananas!

Monkey eggs!

Banana dominos!

I'll put the bananas in the monkeys for an addition game... or something. The bananas were already in my Amazon cart when I saw the monkeys at Kroger in the Easter section... can't resist checking out the new plastic egg styles they invent each year– so handy in the classroom. The monkeys came in a package of three.

Jonathan came around the grocery store aisle and saw me rifling through the eggs, "I thought you were going to get the canned pumpkin?"

What could I say? Monkeys go with bananas and bananas go with monkeys. It's destiny.

Into the cart. *eye roll*

You can see the bananas here.

5.  Happy with upcoming leprechaun mischief– I am half Irish so St. Patrick's day is a day not to be missed. I always have a little leprechaun magic up my sleeve for the kidpeople, too. We do lots of activities, but here is a new one I thought up for this year.

St. Pat's day this year falls on a day when we have our library special right in the middle of the afternoon. Perfect. Just before we go I'm going to set out our party fare: cute shamrock napkins, Rolos, and Oreos (We're also having leprechaun pudding but I'm going to get the fixins ready for that while they are at special.) I want to be sure the kids see the regular old Oreos on their napkins. They'll be excited because treats are treats no matter if they are regular old Oreos. I'll tell them we'll have our party when we get back, and march them out the door. Mean old Mrs. Wright, making them wait... but there is method to my madness.

While they are gone, I'm going to switch out the plain Oreos for Mint Oreos which just happen to be green. When the kiddos come back, och aye, the leprechauns used their magic again to turn the Oreos green... what are we gonna do with those tricksy wee folk?? Easy but effective, I think.

From this...

...to this!  Magic.

6.  Happy trying something new– happy bonus number six... I might very well be on the road as you read this. I'm headed to French Lick, Indiana (don't you just love the name of that town...) for a blogger retreat this weekend. This is my first time going to any blogger event and I'm sorta nervous. It's one thing to know people in virtual reality and another to spend a real weekend with them. I'm not usually shy– stop laughing those of you who actually know me. They ARE teachers, after all. The resort looks gorgeous. I need a little change of scene. This will be fun...  I'll let you know all about it.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a happy weekend!

Click to find more Friday posts. 

Scrounging in the Kitchen

Today I'm linking with Monday Made It from Fourth Grade Frolics and Teacher in the Kitchen at Not Very Fancy in First. Summer is usually my cooking season because I have the time to putzy around a bit. But not this summer. I thought I'd better cook something before the no-cook school season really takes over. I managed to think to take some photos while making dinner last night. Do you like Pasta Carbonara? Well, I didn't intend to make it, but that's what ended up in our bowls somehow. It was a stuff-Kathleen-can-find-around-the-house kinda carbonara. I do REALLY need to get to the grocery store.

Here you see a bowl of eggs, tomato, pesto, parmesan, and some basil... where's the rest of the basil... there was more basil... Unfortunately, you don't see bacon as we didn't have any... so carbonara it was not quite.

I managed to gather these things from the fridge, pantry, and garden... I use the term "garden" loosely. Four big pots, surrounding a post that has string attached to the top so the plants can grow up. This year I have tomatoes, basil, patty-pan squash, cilantro, cucumbers, lettuce, and corn. It does all right if I can manage to remember to water– a basic foundational concept of gardening... who knew...

This is a photo of the garden a spring ago

In this next photo you see cheese– queso blanco, also called bread cheese. This cheese is fantastic because you can brown it in the pan. It retains it's shape as it browns (if you cut it thicker than I did) and has the most divine flavor and texture. It goes VERY well with cherries and grapes. This package came from Costco where it is WAY cheaper than anywhere else. It doesn't really go with Carbonara, but then again, when does cheese not "go."

You also see our pasta bubbling away in the pot in the picture– no, I don't usually leave boxes on the stove. I just wanted you to see the package. To a great extent we have switched over to lentil pasta, made of beans, if you can believe it. It behaves and tastes like regular pasta– even my fussy youngest loves it. It is gluten free, but I buy it because it has fewer calories and more protein that regular pasta. This particular brand also comes from Costco and is also a good price. Gotta love Costco.

While the pasta cooked, I browned the cheese, chopped the tomato and basil, and whisked four eggs in a bowl. As the cheese got done I just set it aside to have as an appetizer. When I turned around it and most of the grapes had disappeared- poof! hmm...

Look at this delicious golden brown cheese. Yum!

I drained the cooked pasta but, and this part is crucial, I did not rinse it as it needs to stay very hot when I put it back in the pot and add the raw eggs. You mix the eggs into the hot pasta very quickly and very well so they cook with the heat of the pasta. The first few times I made Carbonara it kinda freaked me out to be adding raw eggs, but they really do cook in the hot pasta... and cook to just the right consistency. Then I added a generous amount of parmesan and kept stirring.

Because I thought it would be boring without the traditional bacon, I added the tomato, basil and pesto, and mixed it in. A generous amount of ground pepper and a bit of salt finished it off. I probably could have scrounged up a few more spices from the pantry, but I was hungry.

It was a gooey, cheesy delicious mess. YUM.

Where are the photos of this scrumptious concoction, you ask? Well, our bowls of pasta looked and smelled so good that we ate it all up, and I didn't think about the camera again until after the dishes were done! A food blogger I will never be!! Jonathan said I could take a picture of his round belly, but I'll save you all the sight :)

BUT WAIT! As I go to download the photos to add to the post I find...

That DH of mine is naughty, naughty! He took a photo of the empty pot and didn't tell me. So you don't get to see his belly, but you do get to see his happy face... I guess that's happy... it looks like he's about to bite somebody...

BUT WAIT AGAIN! What else is on the roll... (do digital photos come in rolls...?)

OMG.. a missing finger!

Somebody take the camera away from that man! sigh.

There you have it. Pasta Carbonara the throw-together way. I highly recommend a little experimentation in the kitchen. The older I get the fewer recipes I use and the braver I get at just winging it. Jonathan says it's because our taste buds are dying that I can get away with it. If you stop by, I promise to use the cookbook.

Now click on Deb's  Not Very Fancy in 1st  button here to see who else is sharing some cooking ideas.

And click here to go to Monday Made It! Thanks, Tara.

See you around!